Parliament has cancelled the ‘Nyege Nyege’ festival, an annual social event scheduled to take place next week in Jinja.
This was after Tororo Woman MP Hon Sarah Opendi rose on floor of parliament on Tuesday saying the event has turned into a breeding ground for sexual immorality such as open sex, indecency and promoters of LGBTI activities.
This year’s Nyege Nyege is scheduled to take place on 15th to 18th September 2022 at Itanda Falls in Jinja.
“In the last Nyege Nyege, we all saw what happened; people having sex in the open, drinking themselves silly and people have been told this event will go on both day and night,” Opendi said.
She said Nyege Nyege has promoted acts of lesbianism and gayism through international adverts.
“It is going to attract all kinds of people from the world who are going to bring non-African acts…While it is ok to enjoy, we have another bigger challenge, we are having our young children being recruited into LGBTI community,” Opendi said.
Efforts by the Minister of State for Tourism Hon Martin Mugarra Bahinduka to defend the event as a hub of tourism fell on deaf ears as the Speaker Anita Among directed that the festival be called off. Mugarra said over 8,000 foreigner tourists have already booked tickets for the event.
“We want to sell our country in the name of tourism?” Speaker Among asked.
“We are talking about morality of this country; we are talking about our children. You are trying to promote tourism at the expense of our children? We are not going to allow this function to take place,” Among said.
According to the State minister for Ethics and Integrity, Rose Lily Akello, her ministry together with police has already summoned the organizers of this festival and demanded that they fulfill stipulated conditions if this festival is to take place.
“We have set up conditions such as; children below 18years are not supposed to attend, nobody should be there naked, or indulge in immorality,” Akello said. However, the Speaker stood her ground that the festival is cancelled.
